


Going through with this, then.

by pulangaraw



Category: Shetland (TV)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Not quite a fix-it, continuation of the final scene, season 5 episode 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 06:06:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18190742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pulangaraw/pseuds/pulangaraw
Summary: Maybe Jimmy’s hope for Duncan will finally come true.





	Going through with this, then.

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished watching Shetland S5 and I could not just let it end there. I simply could not. So, here is my version of how that final scene continues. Jesus, those two! ;)

“Aye, aye, that’d be great, Mary,” Duncan says absentmindedly. 

Jimmy just looks at him with _that_ impression he sometimes gets when Duncan looks up, embarrassed at what he’s just said. 

“Well, don’t mention it, Fran,” Jimmy quips back, then puts the phone to his ear with a shake of his head. 

Jimmy orders them a pizza and Duncan moves to the kitchen counter with the file in his hand, his heart beating madly in his chest at this unexpected twist. His hands are shaking and he’s desperately trying to work out if it’s the fact that Jimmy offered him the money or the fact that Jimmy asked him to stay that has him all wound up. Maybe it’s the combination of the two. 

After all they’ve been through over the past few months, the accusations and the fights, Alan and the divorce from Mary, Duncan never thought he’d hear anything even close to this from Jimmy. He’d thought this was it, after the speech the other night on the beach, he’d been sure that Jimmy was finally done with him. It’s why he’d given in to Benson’s suggestions to sell in the end. 

With Cassie gone back to uni and Jimmy so angry, Duncan hadn’t seen any point of trying to hang onto his life on Shetland. 

But now there’s hope. 

Jimmy comes back into the room, having divested himself of his jacket and boots and Duncan becomes aware that he’s been staring at the papers in front of him without really seeing them. He’s been too caught up in his thoughts. 

He looks up at Jimmy, who’s still carrying that amused quirk to his lips. Meeting Duncan’s eyes, he shakes his head again, fondly. 

“Well, go on then, show me this mood board I’m gonna spend all my hard earned money on.”

Jimmy moves closer, settling in next to Duncan at the kitchen counter, his shoulder brushing Duncans casually. 

Duncan takes a deep breath, grounds himself in the mundanities of his business plan and starts explaining it to Jimmy. 

He gets about five sentence into his spiel, pointing his finger at a feature he wants installed in the bistro when Jimmy’s hand settles over his own pushing it gently down onto the counter on top of the photos. 

Duncan stutters to a halt.

“Alice and me… that’s over,” Jimmy says into the sudden quiet. 

“Oh,” Duncan says. 

“It’s better this way.”

There’s a long silence where they just stand there, Jimmy’s hand gently covering Duncan’s, both of them staring down at their joined hands on the counter. 

“Alice, she said something earlier that got me thinking,” Jimmy continues eventually, “she said I want to be alone, be apart from everyone because of my job.” 

Jimmy shakes his head. “But that’s not right. ‘Cause I’m not alone. And I’m not apart, not for years.”

“Cassie,” Duncan says. 

“Aye, but that’s not what I meant. I meant you, Duncan.”

A cold suspicion is rising in Duncan’s chest. He pulls his hand out from under Jimmy’s and steps away, turns so he can look at Jimmy properly. He has to know, if they’re doing this, he has to know it’s not what he’s thinking right now. 

“Is that why you’re offering me the money, why you want me to stay? Because you’re afraid of being alone?”

Jimmy shakes his head again, he’s been doing that a lot over the past half hour. “No,” he says quickly, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “Christ, no, Duncan. I would’nae do that to you.”

“Why then?”

“What Alice said, it just got me to thinking.” 

He runs a hand over his hair, clearly struggling to find the right words, to say this right and Duncan is so grateful for that, and for the fact that he knows Jimmy well enough to read him like this. 

“I need to explain this to you, Duncan, but it might be a bit long-winded. Can you listen to the end before you say your piece?”

“Aye.” Duncan can give Jimmy that. 

“You frustrate me so much Duncan, because… because I cannae help but see the potential that’s there and like I said, I keep hoping you’ll rise to it. And not just professionally. We’ve been friends for years now, even if we didn’t start out as such and I want to see you happy, man. I want to see you with someone who loves you, want to see you love someone the way I used to love Fran.”

Duncan shoves his hands into his pockets, looks down. He’s tried that, he wants to say but doesn’t, and look how the last attempt ended. 

Jimmy continues, “I was hoping you and Mary could make it work, but you were nae right for her. I was hoping I could make it work with Asha or with Alice, but I was nae right for them either. And it’s taken me years to get here, but there’s a part of me, a part that’s been growing, that’s thinking that maybe… maybe we could be right for each other?”

Duncan looks up at that, clocks the shy way Jimmy ends his speech, the uncertainty in his voice and it’s just… 

“Jesus, Jimmy,” he breathes and surges forward, pressing his lips to Jimmy’s in lieu of an answer. 

Jimmy freezes for a moment and Duncan has half a second to panic about having misunderstood his declaration, but then Jimmy lets out a breathless moan and melts against him, his arms wrapping around Duncan’s shoulders, pulling him closer and that’s… yes. Just like that, that’s right. 

The world finally makes sense again, Duncan thinks madly and opens his mouth to Jimmy’s. 

They kiss for what feels like hours, but can’t be much more than ten minutes. There’s a loud knock on the door and they break apart, breathless and flushed. 

“That’ll be the pizza,” Jimmy says, voice rough.

“Right, better get that,” Duncan nods. 

Jimmy wraps his hand around the back of Duncan's neck, looks at him seriously. “You were wrong, earlier, Duncan. You're a part of me."

Duncan can't suppress his happy smile at that. "Pizza's getting cold," he says to distract them both from continuing where they just left off and leaving the poor lad waiting outside in the cold.

"We should talk.”

“Food first, talking later,” Duncan says and pushes Jimmy gently towards the door. 

Food first, Duncan thinks, watching Jimmy walk away. Then more kissing… maybe even _more_... and then, eventually, they’ll talk. 

Duncan doesn’t expect things to be easy between them, he knows both himself and Jimmy too well for that. But there’s a spark of hope in his chest, right where his heart sits, that makes him think that maybe this time he can get it right. 

Maybe Jimmy’s hope for him will finally come true.


End file.
